France

===Art===
{{Main|French art}}
[[File:Claude Monet 1899 Nadar crop.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Claude Monet]], founder of the [[Impressionism|Impressionist]] movement]]

The origins of French art were very much influenced by [[Flemish art]] and by [[Italian art]] at the time of the [[Renaissance]]. [[Jean Fouquet]], the most famous medieval French painter, is said to have been the first to travel to Italy and experience the Early Renaissance firsthand. The Renaissance painting [[School of Fontainebleau]] was directly inspired by Italian painters such as [[Primaticcio]] and [[Rosso Fiorentino]], who both worked in France. Two of the most famous French artists of the time of the [[Baroque era]], [[Nicolas Poussin]] and [[Claude Lorrain]], lived in Italy.

French artists developed the [[rococo]] style in the 18th century, as a more intimate imitation of the old baroque style, the works of the court-endorsed artists [[Antoine Watteau]], [[François Boucher]] and [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard]] being the most representative in the country. The French Revolution brought great changes, as [[Napoleon]] favoured artists of [[Neoclassicism|neoclassic style]] such as [[Jacques-Louis David]] and the highly influential [[Académie des Beaux-Arts]] defined the style known as [[Academism]].

In the second part of the 19th century, France's influence over painting grew, with the development of new styles of painting such as [[Impressionism]] and [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]]. The most famous impressionist painters of the period were [[Camille Pissarro]], [[Édouard Manet]], [[Edgar Degas]], [[Claude Monet]] and [[Auguste Renoir]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Guide to Impressionism |url=http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/learn-about-art/guide-to-impressionism/guide-to-impressionism |access-date=22 July 2011 |publisher=National Gallery}}</ref> The second generation of impressionist-style painters, [[Paul Cézanne]], [[Paul Gauguin]], [[Toulouse-Lautrec]] and [[Georges Seurat]], were also at the avant-garde of artistic evolutions,<ref>{{In lang|fr}} RFI, [http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/063/article_34792.asp Le néo-impressionnisme de Seurat à Paul Klee] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010120343/http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/063/article_34792.asp |date=10 October 2017 }} 15 March 2005</ref> as well as the [[Fauvism|fauvist]] artists [[Henri Matisse]], [[André Derain]] and [[Maurice de Vlaminck]].<ref>National Gallery of Art (United States), [http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/fauve/index.shtm The Fauves (dossier)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105195501/http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/fauve/index.shtm|date=5 November 2010}}</ref><ref>{{In lang|fr}} RFI, [http://www.rfi.fr/culturefr/articles/098/article_63189.asp Vlaminck, version fauve] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010120345/http://www.rfi.fr/culturefr/articles/098/article_63189.asp|date=10 October 2017}}, 25 February 2008</ref>

At the beginning of the 20th century, Cubism was developed by [[Georges Braque]] and the Spanish painter [[Pablo Picasso]], living in Paris. Other foreign artists also settled and worked in or near Paris, such as [[Vincent van Gogh]], [[Marc Chagall]], [[Amedeo Modigliani]] and [[Wassily Kandinsky]].

There are many art museums in France, the most famous of which being the state-owned [[Louvre|Musée du Louvre]], which collects artwork from the 18th century and earlier. The [[Musée d'Orsay]] was inaugurated in 1986 in the old railway station [[Gare d'Orsay]], in a major reorganisation of national art collections, to gather French paintings from the second part of the 19th century (mainly Impressionism and Fauvism movements).<ref>Musée d'Orsay (official website), History of the museum&nbsp;– [http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/history-of-the-museum/home.html From station to museum]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=31 July 2007 |title=History of the painting collection |url=http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/history-of-the-collections/painting.html |access-date=22 July 2011 |publisher=Musee-orsay.fr}}</ref> It was voted the best museum in the world in 2018.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/best-museums-world-2018-musee-dorsay-paris-911-new-york-tripadvisor-a8525151.html The top 10 museums in the world], [[The Independent]], 6 September 2018</ref> Modern works are presented in the [[Musée National d'Art Moderne]], which moved in 1976 to the [[Centre Georges Pompidou]]. These three state-owned museums are visited by close to 17&nbsp;million people a year.<ref name="sites">{{In lang|fr}} Ministry of Tourism, [http://www.tourisme.gouv.fr/stat_etudes/memento/2009/sites.pdf Sites touristiques en France] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511093631/http://www.tourisme.gouv.fr/stat_etudes/memento/2009/sites.pdf|date=11 May 2011}} page 2 "Palmarès des 30 premiers sites culturels (entrées comptabilisées)" [Ranking of 30 most visited cultural sites in France]</ref>